Sherry Icardi
October 2025 - Bee Eater and "Friend"
About the Image(s)
While in Kenya we experienced so many beautiful birds, along with the big Five of course, but this little guy caught my attention when I saw a bee in his beak! What are the chances of that? I do know that is the one and only time I've caught one and I photographed many of them while in Africa (both Kenya and Tanzania).
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 80-400 at 400mm
1/2500
f/8.0 (I had been shooting a pair of them right before this - forgot to change and stop down)
ISO 1250
Cropped significantly, denoise, and sharpening in LRC.
10 comments posted
They are such beautiful birds and what a fortunate capture. The bokeh compliments the colors of the bee eater nicely. I might suggest lightening the purple top right in your background just a tad to see what you think. My eye is drawn to that corner. Posted: 10/07/2025 12:38:45
I get your comment....Here is the result.....I think it is the dark colors that draws my attention... Posted: 10/07/2025 15:49:41
Wow, another winner. I love bee eaters. They are all so colorful. The fact that we can even see the bee shows how focused it is. I agree with toning down the dark spot. Leading line branch is good too. Posted: 10/09/2025 22:19:41
Beautiful. I saw one or two. Maybe got a photo. Love how you caught it with food and Gwen had good advice on color. Posted: 10/10/2025 21:29:04
Very nice, Sherry. Timing is everything with an action shot like this. The only tweak I would suggest is the branch this bird is perched upon seems a tad overexposed. You could give it a touch with an appropriately sized brush in Lightroom or Photoshop. That also might provide more balance with the darker corner in the upper right that Gwen mentioned. Just a thought, though. An excellent photo nonetheless. Posted: 10/12/2025 16:05:41
Thanks John...I will lower the darken the branch a little. I know I selected the subject and lightened it somewhat, and never thought to brush out the branch! Posted: 10/18/2025 19:46:02
Sherry,
Beautiful image. I love the colors and the clean background. The tack sharp bee in its mouth makes it perfect. I am not bothered by the background darker spots. In my mind they frame the bee eater. I agree with Johns suggestion of burning the branch a little. Great photo! Posted: 10/13/2025 16:00:48
Beautiful image. I love the colors and the clean background. The tack sharp bee in its mouth makes it perfect. I am not bothered by the background darker spots. In my mind they frame the bee eater. I agree with Johns suggestion of burning the branch a little. Great photo! Posted: 10/13/2025 16:00:48
Sherry...it may be my bad eyes or my monitor, but to me it looks like the eyes of the bird are tack sharp but the rest of the body is a little bit fuzzy. You shot this at f/8, so I'm not sure how that could even happen...must be my eyes :) Posted: 10/17/2025 02:46:31
This is a significantly cropped image, but I did zoom in and noticed when I posted it...that one little fluff below the branch is indeed a bit blurry, and honestly I can't figure out why. The tail on the other hand is OK ...... I upped the F stop to make sure I got the bee and the bird because I wanted the bee sharp. My guess...and that is purely guessing....the significant cropping combined with the file size might have altered it???? The file was only 800kb which will not stand up to much magnification. But even on the original raw file that little fluff of feathers looked fuzzy to me.
Posted: 10/18/2025 19:46:43
Posted: 10/18/2025 19:46:43
To me the whole bird looks very sharp...fluff? what fluff. I even like the darker background. It's a great shot.
' Posted: 10/19/2025 23:21:34
' Posted: 10/19/2025 23:21:34